So far it certainly seemed as if Henry’s foreign policy, instead of gaining him his desired position as neutral and pretended mediator between France and Spain, had only served to alienate both. As his cruel treatment of Katherine and Mary had not improved his position with Charles, he had to cast about for other allies to counterbalance the effect of his tiff with Francis. It is at this juncture that Cromwell first steps into prominence in connexion with foreign affairs. There can be little doubt that the negotiations with the Lutheran princes, which began in July, 1533, were planned by him. It is of course natural to look to the man, whose name six years later became inseparably associated with a German alliance, as the originator of the scheme; in addition to this there is documentary evidence. A letter which Chapuys wrote to the Emperor, July 30, 1533, informs us that two of Cromwell’s men (one of whom later turned out to be his trusty Stephen Vaughan) had been sent to Germany presumably ‘to embroil’ all they could[550]; and on August 3, a letter reporting the progress of the ambassadors was written by them to Cromwell from Antwerp[551]. Vaughan and his companion, a certain Christopher Mont, arrived in Nürnberg on the 22nd, whence they sent home minute accounts of the state of religion in Germany; the one observing, with apparent regret, that the country was not nearly as disturbed as had been thought, while the other assured Cromwell that he had never seen a land whose towns were so much divided[552]. Some time in the autumn Cromwell sent a reply to Mont, praising his diligence, and urging him above all things to discover the state of feeling in Germany towards the King of England and the Emperor[553]. The envoy appears to have returned from his preliminary tour of investigation before the close of the year, for in January, 1534, he was sent back again to Germany, this time accompanied by Nicholas Heath, with instructions to convey to the Lutheran princes the sympathy of the King of England, as being also an enemy of the Pope, and to express his willingness to unite with them for the extirpation of false doctrines[554]. England’s overtures, however, were not received with as much enthusiasm as Henry perhaps had expected, and nothing definite resulted from the mission of Heath and Mont for a long time. The Germans probably had serious misgivings about the genuineness of Henry’s Protestantism, and their suspicions of his sincerity were confirmed by a new development of England’s foreign policy in the same year.